How to choose a PAID webhost.

[arkad]

Hope this will not conflict with X10Hosting's business model ..

A very very short introduction

I’ve personally setup many websites and have my fair share of headache when dealing with the hosts. Thus, I decided to put up a little of what I know to ease you of the pain.


Basics of Choosing a Good Web Host!

I’ll very bold to say that this section is written with the assumption that you are a newbie with web hosting. If you are an advanced user, you’ll probably have known quite a fair bit of what to look out for and what to avoid. This will simplify the tutorial a hell of a lot.

In fact I’ll just simply mention the 5 MANDATORY Factors that I’ll personally consider when choosing a webhost.

Control Panel
I ONLY RECOMMEND Host that are using CPanel. Nothing else!

Cpanel is the easiest to use interface that I’ve encountered. Personally I’ve tried Godaddy, and several others that uses VDeck. None comes as close in terms of user friendliness as compared with CPanel

Support
24/7LIVE CHAT is a MUST! Especially if you are hosting with a host that is out of your country

Reliability
NEVER settle for any host that has an uptime of less than 99.9%. NEVER believe any host that promises 100%! That is bull****!

Price
You’ll be a complete idiot to pay for any basic plan that cost more than USD10! With the great competition and continual falling prices in hardware, you can easily get a hosting space of more than 100GB for less than USD10.

Email Limitation
NOTE: This is a feature that is almost never published!

Most common webhost (unless dedicated server hosting) WILL implement a limit on the emails that you can send through them! This is a way of ensuring that
1)They are not tools for spamming
2)All clients get a decent performance with their hosting.

Check with them through their LIVE Chat. (Also a good test of their LIVE Chat response time)

Do not settle for anything that is less than 300emails/hour

If you are hosting with the following web-hosts, you can be quite sure of their quality of service.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So let's see how did X10Host fare against my 5 Mandatory Factors assuming they are a PAID hosting:

Control Panel - Passed!!
Support - Failed (But they are FREE!!!!)
Reliability - Passed!!
Price - PASSED!! (Exceeded expecteation!!)
Email Limitation - Unknown (But again .. They are FREE!!!!)

So it is a 3/4 with 1 unknown .. .. sure beats a hell lot of other paid-host out in the market!

I've done a very comprehensive ebook on this topic, which is available at:

http://www.joininternetdreamteam.com/webhost/

You can download it there

[balaji2u]

wow great post . . it'll be like a cake to absolute beginners even i get a point about e mail THANKS a LOT.

[Soki]

Support - Failed (But they are FREE!!!!)

I don't mean to be rude, but you might want to get your facts straight... Not only do the staff help as much as their experience allows them to, but other members can and usually do as well.

I think you did an "OK" tutorial, but it needs some work on it with some things you left out. You might want to make sure it has money back guaranteed within 30 days or at least enough time to make sure everything is working. Along with other things to look for are missing. As I know from experience not choose the first hosting you see.

[arkad]

I don't mean to be rude, but you might want to get your facts straight... Not only do the staff help as much as their experience allows them to, but other members can and usually do as well.

To Staff of X10Hosting:

I AM SORRY

.. I did not mean that the level of service 'failed' .. What I meant was the availability of LIVE Chat is not there .. I aware of the speedy responses as I've seen it in the various threads .. .. and I was actually hesitant to consider that point 'cos it can not be a fair comparison .. as I don't recall seeing free hosts that give Live-Chat service as I am aware that LIVE-Chat can cost quite a bit of $$ ..

Sorry for any upset arising from my bad expression of what I really meant.

[Starshine]

Control Panel
I ONLY RECOMMEND Host that are using CPanel. Nothing else!

Nice. But any CP can be useful if given the time to understand it. I have used a custom made panel that, at first was a bit puzzling to understand, but I got use to it and happened to enjoy it. Just like web hosting providers, each person is different.

Support
24/7LIVE CHAT is a MUST! Especially if you are hosting with a host that is out of your country

Again, I somewhat agree. Just because you have 24/7 support, doesn't mean the support answers 24/7. I have dealt with many tech supports for various functions that say they have operators live 24 / 7 - and it still takes a while to get a response or solution.

I don't recall seeing free hosts that give Live-Chat service as I am aware that LIVE-Chat can cost quite a bit of $$ ..

Your research is slightly flawed. Depending on the Live help software used, amount of currently live operators, etc - there are many decent live help scripts that are free or relativtely inexpensive.

Otherwise, I think the overall aspect of this was well thought out.

[Soki]

To Staff of X10Hosting:

I AM SORRY

Sorry for any upset arising from my bad expression of what I really meant.

It is ok. Just didn't want others to mistakenly read it.

Your research is slightly flawed. Depending on the Live help software used, amount of currently live operators, etc - there are many decent live help scripts that are free or relativtely inexpensive.

I agree, I once had and used a very good support script which was free.

[Anna]

I suppose x10's IRC chat for support doesn't count as a LIVE support chat then... What are your specification for how a LIVE chat support is? For me a irc chat support would count as LIVE support chat (I have a guess on your specs though, and that is that the chat should be one to one with a tech assigned to your issue, is that correct?)

Granted the staff isn't on at all times, and users can only answer questions to a certain degree

[Domenico]

Since this a tutorial about choosing a paid webhost shouldn't you mention recommendations on bandwidth, HD space, number of domain names and sub-domains they offer, number of databases they offer, etc.?

[DeadBattery]

Its a of simpler than that; chose x10Hosting.